


The Smell of Smoke and Lies

by abbene



Series: Dream SMP Oneshots [1]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dream Team SMP Setting (Video Blogging RPF), Anger, Angst, Broken Promises, Gen, Mentioned Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Mentioned Toby Smith | Tubbo, Mentioned Wilbur Soot, Niki is so done with everyone's bullshit, Niki promising vengeance, Niki | Nihachu-centric, Post-Manberg-Pogtopia War on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Villain Niki | Nihachu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:48:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28706916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abbene/pseuds/abbene
Summary: “So is it like… A party?” Niki inquires.“No, more like a festival.”And just like that, an explosion has gone off inside her—she can feel the torrent of unbridled emotions rising to the surface, a thread being snapped which drops so many unwanted thoughts onto her all at once.A festival?She repeats to herself, hardly processing it initially.Why not just say you plan on killing, Fundy?---Niki has been ignored for far too long, shoved away for the sake of "focusing on the larger issue". Well, now she's become fed up with it and has decided to fix the issue herself... No matter what it takes to do that.
Relationships: Floris | Fundy & Niki | Nihachu
Series: Dream SMP Oneshots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2181081
Kudos: 19





	The Smell of Smoke and Lies

_I’m not stupid, Fundy. I know you’re hiding things from me._

The desert sun beats down on the two with relentless strength. If she looks far enough into the distance, the heat radiating off of the hardened clay surface blurs the horizon beyond recognition. The smell of sweat from their own persons and smoke from the nearby campfire is nearly able to mask the disgusting stink of deceit.

The badlands are an unforgiving place… But so is the rest of the Dream SMP for very different reasons.

“Tubbo wants to host something soon. Some type of big event to celebrate the peace since Tommy was exiled.”

“Oh really?” _Liar._ “How long have you guys been working on it?” _He’s lying to me again._

“The idea, well…” The fox pauses. When his co-founder meets his eyes they dart in the other direction. “It’s been thrown around a while but now the time just feels right, y’know? It’s been so chill. Not that the relaxing isn’t nice but I think a bit of excitement is just what we need!”

She laughs but it’s emptiness laced with pity. Fundy was someone she thought she could trust… And here she is, having to pretend she can’t tell he’s lying straight to her face. There’s a bigger plot involved and Niki is well aware of it. Dry Waters sits and waits for its founders to build it to glory, ever so patiently for its time to shine, while one of them leaves to attend to his “duties”—his loyalty remains with the very same nation he promised to leave.

Unfaithfulness is one thing but a blatant lie is another.

“So is it like… A party?” Niki inquires.

“No, more like a festival.”

And just like that, an explosion has gone off inside her—she can feel the torrent of unbridled emotions rising to the surface, a thread being snapped which drops so many unwanted thoughts onto her all at once. _A festival?_ She repeats to herself, hardly processing it initially. _Why not just say you plan on killing, Fundy?_

She no longer trusts festivals. The last one that was supposed to be “fun”, ended in her crumbling to the ground with searing hot wounds after watching a child get trapped in a box and a firework shot straight through his chest. And her birthday party? Let’s not forget how Wilbur went off the rails at the end.

Fun is a foreign word to her. Fun is a lie.

She thinks back to the old L’manberg days—in the very midst of its creation. Yes, of course, they were at war with Dream, but back then it was so much simpler. L’manberg was home for her and a home for her friends. They sang songs to fill the silence, they danced whenever Wilbur played his guitar, and most importantly, there were no lies. Not a single one, because back then there was a genuine hope that they could have a place, L’manberg, all to their own.

But that L’manberg is gone now. Old L’manberg, Niki’s home, was gone long before the explosion. Now, she has no home.

“Fundy.” She begins. The amusement she was feigning to hide her dismay? Scrapped. Her tone is flat, her expression blank, prepared to let the internal inferno reach the surface. “Why are you planning another festival?”

The fox is unable to reply for a moment. Niki makes sure to look him dead in the eyes, in which she can not only see confusion but she sees shock. And that… That is a good thing.

“I-it’s a festival, Niki. It won’t be like the last one, I promise—”

“You promise?” She laughs. This one isn’t empty—it’s burning with passion, burning with anger. “I’m tired of being ‘promised’ to, Fundy. Every single thing that has been promised to me has been broken. Wilbur promised us a great nation, Wilbur promised not to blow up L’manberg, you promised to help with Dry Waters, and now you promise this festival won’t be like the last?”

Her fists ball up. She’s trying to extinguish a bit of the fire lacing every action she takes. Niki knows that if the flames are too high, too hungry, she will take herself out in the blaze. It happened with Wilbur when he burned too quick, it all backfired for him and now he’s… Niki hasn’t seen him in forever.

_He’s not dead. He can’t be._

But then, she backtracks. Why not let it all burn? Why not let the flames engulf absolutely everything? What is here worth saving? Niki has nothing to lose.

Niki has nothing to lose.

“You know what they say about a woman who has nothing to lose…” The co-founder growls. The flames lick at the edge of her words, daring to reach further at the possibility of something to turn to ashes. The smoke would send a signal to everyone else: _stay away_ . “Keep lying to me. Keep lying, Fundy, and watch how well that turns out for you in the end. I have nothing, I care for nothing on this—this server, it has taken _everything_ from me! And you all act as if I need to be protected, as if I’m fucking stupid!” As the flames rise, Niki’s voice does too. Each word that comes out of her mouth stings even more than the last. The inferno is growing scarily close to her heart—threatening to crack it open and spill in soon enough.

Niki isn’t quite sure if she wants to stop it.

“I’m giving you a final chance, Fundy.” A step towards the fox causes him to step back. His mouth is stuck open, completely speechless as he watches his co-founder become unhinged from everything she’s been put through. Some part of Niki that’s still calm wonders Fundy’s exact thoughts about this—how he’s seeing her now, after witnessing this side that’s been hidden away for so long. He now knows about the fire inside her that’s been ignited, so far deep that it’s unreachable by a careful study… It’s time that she learns what he’s been hiding for weeks.

“Who do you plan on killing at the festival?”

Silence.

“Answer me, damn it!” Her shrill scream breaks through to him, prompting a gasp and a hand to fly in front of him.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry!” He takes a breath, letting the hand fall slightly as he examines Niki’s figure.

 _Does he think I’m dangerous?_ She looks into his eyes for an answer. Fundy is a pretty upfront person, which is why it’s so easy to tell when he’s lying. Most of his emotions are surface level—you can see what he’s feeling with ease. There have been numerous times when Niki has been able to see exactly what he’s feeling, despite thinking he’s hidden it well. And what does she see in those eyes of this?

Fear.

“We—we’ve been planning for a little while… Using the festival as, as a cover-up for our real plans.” Fundy admits. Finally, the truth she’s been aching for, the truth she _deserves_! It’s too often that she’s lied too, too often that she’s unseen. “We want to kill Dream.”

Niki pauses to process… And then she nods. “Alright. I get it.”

The issue is, as much as he gets it, as much as she wants him dead too—look at the lengths she had to go to. Look at the measures she had to take. This should not have been how far this needed to be taken and yet it did… That. That is the issue.

People keep turning their heads when she speaks up. They keep underestimating her and her power. Nobody realizes how dangerous she is, how she could hold them all under her grasp so very easily.

Niki wants Dream dead. But more than that, she wants everybody to be happy again—she wants everybody to be a big happy family. No wars, no discs, no questioning what’s right and wrong… That sounds like the ideal world to her and she knows the exact person who’s gonna help her achieve it.

And that alliance shall be formed when Niki warns him of the plans to take his life.

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this the morning l'manberg was blown up, before niki burnt the l'mantree. i was glad i got to see a bit of how i portrayed her here in the actual lore, and i'm very excited to see where her character goes! if she ends up not teaming up with dream, i might turn this into a larger work. depends though, i enjoyed writing it as it is :)


End file.
